GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS by John Dwyer

GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS THURSDAY, October 18, the 291st day of 2018 with 74 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 6:59 and sunset is @ 5:58. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury & Saturn. The evening stars are Neptune, Uranus & Venus.

ON THIS DAY IN: 1469 – Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. The marriage united all the dominions of Spain.

1685 – King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had established the legal toleration of the Protestant population.

1767 – The Mason-Dixon line was agreed upon. It was the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania.

1842 – Samuel Finley Breese Morse laid his first telegraph cable.

1860 – British troops burned the Yuanmingyuan at the end of the Second Opium War.

1867 – The U.S. took formal possession of Alaska from Russia. The land was purchased of a total of $7 million dollars (2 cents per acre).

1873 – The first rules for intercollegiate football were drawn up by representatives from Rutgers, Yale, Columbia and Princeton Universities.

1892 – The first long-distance telephone line between Chicago, IL, and New York City, NY, was opened.

1898 – The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico only one year after the Caribbean nation won its independence from Spain.

1929 – The Judicial Committee of England’s Privy Council ruled that women were to be considered as persons in Canada.

1943 – The first broadcast of “Perry Mason” was presented on CBS Radio. The show went to TV in 1957.

1944 – Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Soviets during World War II.

1944 – “Forever Amber”, written by Kathleen Windsor, was first published.

1950 – Connie Mack announced that he was going to retire after 50 seasons as the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics.